Rayna Cruz
Rayna Cruz is a recurring character and primary antagonist in the seventh season of . She is an enhanced human hailing around the 19th Century, the daughter of Vicente Cruz, who was a member of the Brotherhood of the Five, and is a malevolent vampire huntress whose sole purpose is to eradicate and incarcerate vampires within the Phoenix Stone. After being forced to kill her father by Julian, she became enhanced by shamans to get vengeance on Julian and his Heretic family, stabbing Beau in the neck with her sword and killing Julian with it. Her main target is Stefan Salvatore as he was stabbed by her when she attempted to kill Damon, marking him with her sword, allowing her to find him anywhere and compelling her to kill him. She is willing to kill everyone, no matter the species, that dare to stand in her way. She also bears a striking resemblance to the late Elena Gilbert although she does not seem to be of any relation to Elena or any of her doppelgangers. Rayna first appears in a flashforward featured in Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take and makes her first modern day appearance in Postcards from the Edge. Early Life Rayna was born to a man named Vicente and an unknown mother and is from St. Malo, Louisiana. Her father was one of the Brotherhood of the Five. Eventually, she convinced her father to train her as a vampire hunter. When she was older, Julian attacked the settlement they lived in. Her father tried to save the villagers, however, lost against him. Rayna interrupted Julian before he could kill her father and told him her father was one of the Five. Instead of killing her father, and receiving the Hunter's Curse, Julian compelled Rayna to kill him. In order to get revenge, Rayna teamed up with a group of Native American shamans who sacrificed themselves and cast a spell on Rayna, endowing her with powerful abilities that would allow her to kill vampires. She was also bestowed with the Phoenix Sword that the shamans supposedly custom made just for her and the Phoenix Stone, two powerful and mystical artifacts that when combined together can entrap any vampire's soul within the stone where they are forced to endure a personal hell for all eternity. At some point in the mid-late 19th Century, she began to hunt the Heretics along with Julian and Lily Salvatore. She pursued them across Europe for decades and at some point, branding Beau with an "X" shaped scar and killing Julian, imprisoning his soul within the Phoenix Stone. Throughout The Vampire Diaries Series Season Seven In Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take, three years from now, Rayna appears in a flashforward hunting Stefan and Damon Salvatore. In Never Let Me Go, three years from now, Rayna shoots Tony in the throat and Caroline Forbes is shot with a stake while remaining unseen. In Mommie Dearest, three years from now, Rayna takes Damon hostage after shooting him with multiple vervain darts. In Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me, three years from now, Damon has been captured and chained up in a Dallas news station. He originally believes that his captor is his mother, Lily. However, it is later revealed that she was only a hallucination due to the effects of the werewolf toxin in his system. After informing him that his mother has been dead for years, Rayna kicks him in the face, knocking Damon unconscious. In Things We Lost in the Fire, Nora Hildegard receives a card with a red "X" on it and tells Bonnie Bennett that it is the huntress' warning. Nora tells Bonnie that the huntress will be coming for Stefan, Julian, Beau and anyone else who has been marked by her sword. Three years from now, it is revealed that Matt Donovan is working for her. In Postcards from the Edge, Bonnie and Nora locate Rayna by performing a locator spell and discover that she is in Ohio. On their journey, Nora reveals that shamans cast a spell on Rayna, transforming her into a powerful vampire huntress with a supernatural urge to kill vampires as well as enhanced strength and the Phoenix Sword. Arriving at Ohio, they discover along with Mary Louise that Rayna is in a mental asylum. She, however, is an old woman yearning to die, but pretends to be senile with no knowledge of the supernatural. Convinced that she is not the one they are searching for, the two vampires leave to search for the huntress under a different name, inadvertently leaving Bonnie alone with her. Rayna reveals her real identity to Bonnie and speaks about how the uncontrollable urge to kill vampires started to affect her mind and mental stability after she accidentally murdered a supermarket cashier, mistaking her for a vampire. Rayna asks for a cookie and when Bonnie attempts to feed it to her, Rayna brutally attacks her. However, Bonnie is saved when Enzo unexpectedly arrives and kills Rayna by throwing a knife into her throat. When Bonnie leaves to retrieve Nora and Mary Louise, Enzo takes the time to abduct and incarcerate Rayna's body in a incinerator. He reveals that he was the one who sent the cards with the red X to the Heretics in hope that they would lead him to Rayna. Minutes after he burns her body, Rayna is reincarnated from her ashes, just like that of the mythical phoenix, restoring her to her youth. But little does Enzo know, he has just revived the most dangerous and ruthless vampire huntress the world has ever seen. Three years from now, Matt injects Stefan with vervain under orders from Rayna and is informed that he is free to go and wishes him a nice life. Meanwhile, Rayna looks at a weakened Damon tied to a chair with amusement. Personality According to Nora, Rayna is ruthless and unstoppable. Relentless in her mission to hunt down and kill vampires that have been marked by her mystical sword, any other vampires that dare to cross her path, and any people (regardless of the species) who dare to involve themselves with vampires. She also seems to have a pathological hatred of vampires and Stefan Salvatore, who she is increasingly obsessed with destroying, and everyone he loves as she also has her sights on his older brother, Damon. She revealed that the shamans who made her, also gave her a supernatural urge to kill vampires, much like the hunter's instinct present in members of the Brotherhood of the Five. She seems to be mentally unstable due to spending almost all her life, hunting and killing vampires with a pathological hatred, as she accidentally murdered a supermarket cashier, mistaking her for a vampire. She felt compelled to kill her due to the hunter's instinct she was spelled with. She is also skilled at manipulating people as she comes across as a senile old woman to Mary Louise, Nora and Bonnie. Only after the two Heretics leave, does she reveal her true nature to Bonnie and attempts to strangle her to get Bonnie to free her, showing annoyance for Bonnie associating with vampires. Bonnie is only saved when Enzo arrives and kills Rayna by throwing a knife at her, impaling her through the throat. However, he knew that she would be revived and imprisoned her in a glass chamber before her rebirth, much to her anger. In the flash forwards, Rayna appears to be hunting, not just Stefan, but everyone close to him, using Caroline as a hostage from a news broadcast to lure Stefan to the news station. She even successfully captures and holds Damon hostage, as he tried to get there and stop her before Stefan wandered into her trap. With aid from Matt, who seems to be working for her reluctantly, she successfully captures Stefan as well. After sarcastically thanking Matt for his help by telling him to have a nice life and that he never had to see her again, she smiles amusingly at a weakened Damon as now she can finally exact her revenge on Stefan. Physical Appearance As a young woman, Rayna has long black/dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. According to Damon, she bares a resemblance to Elena Gilbert and her three doppelgangers. She also seems to have a very dark exterior and wears a dark leather jacket in a flashforward of Postcards from the Edge. As an old woman, Rayna had medium length gray hair and wore a mental patient's attire. Equipment *'The Phoenix Stone Sword': Rayna once wielded the Phoenix Sword that was custom made just for her, supposedly by shamans that allowed her to trap the soul of any vampire she killed within the Phoenix Stone where they are forced to endure a personal hell of a past memory. The stone acts similar to the Hunter's Curse in which escapees are haunted by horrifying hallucinations from their personal hell, where they do the most despicable things in order to free themselves from the stone's influence without being fully aware of their own actions. Powers and Abilities *'Enhanced Strength:' According to Nora, shamans endowed Rayna with enhanced strength. This is proven due to the many vampires she has defeated. Her strength seems to be able to match that of a vampire's. As she has been able to hold her own against very powerful vampires such as Julian. Her strength also doesn't falter with old age, even as an old woman, she is able to restrain Bonnie with one hand while attempting to strangle her. In a flashback in This Woman's Work, ''it is discovered that her strength comes from the Tea of Protection, which was most likely made by the Shamans themselves. *'Immunity to Magic:' Through the power of the Shamans, magic does not work on her. This is proven to be true after Bonnie tries to use pain infliction on her when the latter attempts to kill her, but to no avail. This Immunity also seemed to be a work of the Tea of Protection. *'Longevity:' Rayna ages, just like an ordinary human, but at an extremely slow rate and therefore has an extended lifespan. * [[Resurrection|'Self-Resurrection']]':' Since the Shamans sacrificed and gave their lives to her, Rayna has the ability to continue to resurrect from the dead at the moment, only that when she dies, her body self-combusts then reborn from the ashes to her physical prime (despite whatever age she is prior to her death, her body's physical age is restored back to the age she was when the Shamans originally blessed her). Akin to a phoenix rising from the ashes. Weaknesses *'Mortality': Despite her enhanced physical attributes, Rayna is still human and shares many of the same weaknesses as a non-supernatural being, such as aging (though at an extremely slow rate), decapitation, drowning, heart extraction, suffocation, etc (but she will always be reborn). *'Hunter Instinct': Rayna appears to suffer from the same supernatural urge to kill vampires as the Brotherhood of the Five. The more vampires she kills, the more stronger the urge becomes. This urge is purely instinctual and seems to worsen with age and begin to affect the mind. As the desire to kill vampires has had a huge impact on Rayna's mental stability in which she accidentally mistaken a supermarket cashier for a vampire, who she staked, leading to her being confined into a secure psychiatric hospital as an old woman. She later escapes after being restored to her true form by Enzo. Appearances Season Seven *Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take'' (Flashforward) *''Never Let Me Go'' (Unseen/Flashforward) *''Age of Innocence'' (Mentioned) *''Live Through This'' (Mentioned) *''Mommie Dearest'' (Unseen/Flashforward) *''Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me'' (Flashforward) *''Cold as Ice'' (Mentioned) *''Things We Lost in the Fire'' (Mentioned) *''Postcards from the Edge'' *''This Woman's Work'' *''Moonlight on the Bayou'' *''I Would for You'' *''7x16'' Leslie-Anne Huff on Twitter Name *'Rayna' is either a Bulgarian form of "Regina", meaning "queen" in Latin, or a feminine form of "Rayno", meaning "happy, willing" in Slavic. *'Cruz' is Spanish and means "cross". Trivia *Her original casting call name was "Hannah". *It is most likely that her name, Rayna, is a reference to the video games BloodRayne which ironically are about a vampire hunter named Rayne. *She is a dangerous vampire hunter who returns to the world of the living after being taken out by her enemies, and "fierce, driven, smart and confident – a deadly legend who literally cannot rest until her vengeance is complete." *According to her casting sides (which tend to be false and loosely based on the character's actual story), she was being pursued by Julian in 1860 where he killed her father and she vowed to kill him with presumably the phoenix stone sword. She also vowed to kill everyone Julian knew and she was in a situation where Damon trapped her but she had Stefan captured underwater, struggling to breathe. *Based on the actress' background and Rayna's last name, Rayna is of Filipina descent. Her father also referred to her as nene, which means 'little girl' in Tagalog (one of the major languages of the Philippines.) St. Malo was also the first Filipino settlement in the United States, which is where Rayna and her father are from. *As Mikael was feared the world over as The Vampire Who Hunts Vampires, or The Hunter, Rayna is feared as The Huntress. They are both immensely powerful vampire hunters, as Mikael was an Original Vampire, and Rayna was spelled by shamans to be a powerful vampire hunter, who Nora describes as unstoppable. **In the flashforwards, Rayna is one of the only vampire hunters in the series that scares all of the characters, scaring not just Stefan, but Damon, Caroline, and most notably the Heretics. As Enzo sent the postcards to make them think Rayna returned, the threat of Rayna was the only thing shown to truly terrify Julian and the Heretics. *According to Nora, the Phoenix Sword was custom made just for her. When completed with the Phoenix Stone, the souls of the vampires she kills are pulled into the stone to live in their own personal hell unless a witch pulls their soul out and resurrects the vampire, such as Julian, Stefan, and Damon. *Like the Brotherhood of the Five, Rayna was spelled by witches to be a powerful vampire hunter, granting her increased strength and powers, as well as the urge to kill vampires. **Rayna's father was a member of the Brotherhood of the Five coincidentally, and Rayna was then spelled to make her a superior hunter compared to the Five, given extreme strength to overpower ancient vampires, the urge to kill vampires, and more than one life, as she is reborn from death akin to a phoenix. *Unlike the Five, when Rayna dies, her body is engulfed in flames and Rayna's youth is restored, like a phoenix rising from the ashes after its death. *The process of Rayna's rebirth is the opposite of an Original Vampire's death when killed with a White Oak Stake. When an Original dies, their body becomes lifeless and is consumed by flames. Rayna, however, dies, is engulfed in flames, then reverts to a younger appearance and rises, going from death to rebirth from the flames. 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